Studio: Sony
Writer / Director: Neill Blomkamp (DISTRICT 9)
Cast: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Diego Luna, Alice Braga
Logline: Sci-fi, futuristic drama about one ordinary man's extraordinary quest to bring equality to a dystopic society.
http://reeltalkreviews.blogspot.com/2013/07/elysium-trailer.htmlELYSIUM features a Spanglish speaking DAMON as "Max DaCosta", an ex-con trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow when he's exposed to a lethal dose of radiation at work and given a whopping five days to live. Max then reconnects with characters from his shady past to get an illegal ticket to the elitist society Elysium, in which all diseases are curable. Hi-jinks ensue. FOSTER plays the Nazi-esque Security of Defense, while COPLEY is her right-hand man. They make for solid villains. As for Damon - it's hard to take him seriously as a reformed gangster, with or without tattoos, especially when he's speaking broken Spanish. Also, Damon's character spends most of the movie trying to save his own life, but because he leads a life of privation, one wonders why he doesn't just go find a beach to spend his last 5 days on. That is a shame too because Blomkamp draws a very clear parallel in the story with present-day immigration issues, which may have landed harder for me if I could have empathized more with the hero.
On the other hand - visually - the movie is spectacular: there are robots; fight sequences, things that blow up AND watching the advanced technology work on Elysium is pretty cool.
Recommendation - see it in the theater for the visuals OR stream it later for the story.
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